Curriculum Context
The following document explains the context behind my choices of how I designed and chose to implement this curriculum. I explain how my particular school setting, student population and the greater community outside of school affected my decisions.
Curriculum Rationale
The following is an explanation of my reasoning behind teaching this particular content. I highlight some of the philosophy of education and theories of teaching that are behind some of the choices I made in designing this curriculum and choosing a focus for what content I wanted to teach these particular students.
Part I: How is your topic central to one or more disciplines [and how does it meet mandates]?
At this current time and in the current climate of public education in Philadelphia, it is important to design curriculum that meets both state and national standards. Before determining which standards would be met, I worked on identifying my enduring understandings. I believe that the enduring understandings are on a more general scale than the standards are. My intention is that these are understandings that can help students see the bigger picture and apply their gained skills and knowledge in new situations that they encounter outside of this particular unit.
In my Trees and Environmentalism unit, I chose some of the enduring understandings because of the attention paid to connecting science content to human actions and experiences. The relationship that we as humans have with science is a larger overarching understanding and ever growing field of study that can be applied to all scientific endeavors and processes beyond just trees and life sciences. These understandings are appropriate because I aligned them with the three dimensions of the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS are based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council. This framework and the subsequent standards are highly supported by the professional scientific community and will be adopted by many states in the upcoming school years.
The three main dimensions of the framework and the NGSS to come are: 1) Practices, 2) Cross Cutting Concepts and 3) Disciplinary Core Ideas. Some of my enduring understandings focused on how we as humans study nature with particular skills like identifying, classifying, organizing information, record keeping, communicating and observing. This attention to skills of science fits with the first dimension of scientific practices. Other enduring understandings focused on the way in which science and humans are interrelated and interdependent on one another, such as: how we benefit from nature and how we have harmed and helped the environment. These particular understandings are based on a general application of cause and effect relationships which can be practiced and applied in many subjects and content areas beyond any of the sciences and is easily considered a cross-cutting concept, thereby addressing the second dimension. The third dimension of disciplinary core ideas has to do with the specific science content being covered. Environmentalism is certainly a core idea. The framework notes, “To be considered core, the ideas should should meet at least two of the following criteria and ideally all four: 1) Have broad importance across multiple sciences or engineering disciplines or be a key organizing concept of a single discipline; 2) Provide a key tool for understanding or investigating more complex ideas and solving problems; 3) Relate to the interests and life experiences of students or be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technological knowledge; 4) Be teachable and learn-able over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication” (National Research Council, 2011). Environmentalism as an idea meets the third and fourth criteria thoroughly and also at least begins to meet the first two as well. The focus on environmentalism clearly links science to problems in human society and our lives, meeting the third criteria. The fact that I am teaching my unit through differentiated means to grades first through fifth clearly shows the ideas ability to meet the fourth criteria. So I can conclude that environmentalism as a content focus for my unit aligns with the NGSS dimension of disciplinary core ideas.
At this current time and in the current climate of public education in Philadelphia, it is important to design curriculum that meets both state and national standards. Before determining which standards would be met, I worked on identifying my enduring understandings. I believe that the enduring understandings are on a more general scale than the standards are. My intention is that these are understandings that can help students see the bigger picture and apply their gained skills and knowledge in new situations that they encounter outside of this particular unit.
In my Trees and Environmentalism unit, I chose some of the enduring understandings because of the attention paid to connecting science content to human actions and experiences. The relationship that we as humans have with science is a larger overarching understanding and ever growing field of study that can be applied to all scientific endeavors and processes beyond just trees and life sciences. These understandings are appropriate because I aligned them with the three dimensions of the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS are based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council. This framework and the subsequent standards are highly supported by the professional scientific community and will be adopted by many states in the upcoming school years.
The three main dimensions of the framework and the NGSS to come are: 1) Practices, 2) Cross Cutting Concepts and 3) Disciplinary Core Ideas. Some of my enduring understandings focused on how we as humans study nature with particular skills like identifying, classifying, organizing information, record keeping, communicating and observing. This attention to skills of science fits with the first dimension of scientific practices. Other enduring understandings focused on the way in which science and humans are interrelated and interdependent on one another, such as: how we benefit from nature and how we have harmed and helped the environment. These particular understandings are based on a general application of cause and effect relationships which can be practiced and applied in many subjects and content areas beyond any of the sciences and is easily considered a cross-cutting concept, thereby addressing the second dimension. The third dimension of disciplinary core ideas has to do with the specific science content being covered. Environmentalism is certainly a core idea. The framework notes, “To be considered core, the ideas should should meet at least two of the following criteria and ideally all four: 1) Have broad importance across multiple sciences or engineering disciplines or be a key organizing concept of a single discipline; 2) Provide a key tool for understanding or investigating more complex ideas and solving problems; 3) Relate to the interests and life experiences of students or be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technological knowledge; 4) Be teachable and learn-able over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication” (National Research Council, 2011). Environmentalism as an idea meets the third and fourth criteria thoroughly and also at least begins to meet the first two as well. The focus on environmentalism clearly links science to problems in human society and our lives, meeting the third criteria. The fact that I am teaching my unit through differentiated means to grades first through fifth clearly shows the ideas ability to meet the fourth criteria. So I can conclude that environmentalism as a content focus for my unit aligns with the NGSS dimension of disciplinary core ideas.
Once I had these enduring understandings in place and supported by the NGSS. I then looked to the state standards to match specific curricular and content knowledge requirements to my unit's specific objectives and learning activities. The state standards have many broad content standards related to life sciences that are used as a foundational set of knowledge and skills to eventually contribute towards the greater enduring understandings related to environmentalism outlined above. It is at this level with the state standards that I use trees as the specific example students base their investigations on to ground our objectives in specific applications of the content knowledge in the standards. The following is an example of this process. I want students to come away understanding how we impact the environment. There is a state standard that reads, “S4.B.3.2.1: Describe what happens to a living thing when its habitat is changed”. We then do activities related to investigating the impact specific human disturbances have on forests and tree growth. Through this process I have been able to create this curriculum unit through participating in the method of backwards design.
Part II: What makes this topic interesting (to students and to the teacher)?
Environmentalism and trees in particular are interesting to students for a variety of reasons. However, I'll start by stating that I believe that curriculum should be a mix of “windows and mirrors” to be the most meaningful, authentic and engaging that it can be. Emily Style defines this type of curriculum as one that “has elements that serve as both a window that reveals a new or unknown culture/reality and as a mirror that reflects the culture/reality of the observer” (Style, 1996). The window that I am presenting students with is the opportunity to look and the natural environment outside of the city and even outside of the United States. The problem we are addressing with our inquiry into trees is one that is found all over the world (i.e. The Greenbelt Movement in Kenya) but also one that is being discussed and acted on right here at home in the city of Philadelphia with programs such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Tree Tenders organization. I will be using the more global “window” as the hook for our unit, but work towards connecting that to the “mirror” of what are and can people like us do here in our own communities. This is a curricular application of the now common sentiment, “think global, act local”.
One of the biggest reasons why students find this topic of study interesting is because they encounter trees and environmental issues all the time in their everyday life. It is relatively easy for students to see the applications for this content knowledge when they walk outside and they are confronted by it every time they look at a tree in their yard, on the street, in the park, etc. The proximity of the problems being investigated to their own lives makes the topic feel more authentic and purposeful to students.
One way that students will be engaged with the topic is to have this proximity highlighted and reinforced. The students are asked throughout the unit to adopt a specific tree in the neighborhood to study, learn from and apply concepts in class to. By having an example or object of study that lives outside the confines of the classroom and even the school grounds allows students to see that this topic and what they are learning is not just for the sake of a grade but instead has real meaning and worth. Also, students will be using more than just the classroom as a learning environment during specific activities throughout this unit. Whether it's surveying the schoolyard grounds, observing trees in a neighborhood park or assessing the health of trees around where they live, the students will appreciate that this knowledge is not being fed to them but being learned and processed through first hand experiences taking place beyond the walls of the classroom.
This unit is meant to extend the topic beyond the month that we study it in school by leaving students with questions and problems to act on in their lives. Throughout the unit students build a case for themselves of why trees are important to them and begin to identify the problems the trees that benefit our lives are facing. However, I was careful to only give examples of how a couple people have begun to address this problem. The unit is left off as an opportunity for open inquiry into what can be done to help the trees in Philadelphia and around the world. Students are hopefully hungry to act on their new knowledge and apply their understanding to the issues they can now identify in their own communities. This topic's emphasis on encouraging student action and empowerment of student voice is something that will engage students in powerful and meaningful ways. My hope is that these students will be engaged by the opportunities to participate in a “critical reading of (their own) reality” as Paolo Freire would suggested when writing about reading the world (Freire and Macedo, 1987).
One of the biggest reasons why students find this topic of study interesting is because they encounter trees and environmental issues all the time in their everyday life. It is relatively easy for students to see the applications for this content knowledge when they walk outside and they are confronted by it every time they look at a tree in their yard, on the street, in the park, etc. The proximity of the problems being investigated to their own lives makes the topic feel more authentic and purposeful to students.
One way that students will be engaged with the topic is to have this proximity highlighted and reinforced. The students are asked throughout the unit to adopt a specific tree in the neighborhood to study, learn from and apply concepts in class to. By having an example or object of study that lives outside the confines of the classroom and even the school grounds allows students to see that this topic and what they are learning is not just for the sake of a grade but instead has real meaning and worth. Also, students will be using more than just the classroom as a learning environment during specific activities throughout this unit. Whether it's surveying the schoolyard grounds, observing trees in a neighborhood park or assessing the health of trees around where they live, the students will appreciate that this knowledge is not being fed to them but being learned and processed through first hand experiences taking place beyond the walls of the classroom.
This unit is meant to extend the topic beyond the month that we study it in school by leaving students with questions and problems to act on in their lives. Throughout the unit students build a case for themselves of why trees are important to them and begin to identify the problems the trees that benefit our lives are facing. However, I was careful to only give examples of how a couple people have begun to address this problem. The unit is left off as an opportunity for open inquiry into what can be done to help the trees in Philadelphia and around the world. Students are hopefully hungry to act on their new knowledge and apply their understanding to the issues they can now identify in their own communities. This topic's emphasis on encouraging student action and empowerment of student voice is something that will engage students in powerful and meaningful ways. My hope is that these students will be engaged by the opportunities to participate in a “critical reading of (their own) reality” as Paolo Freire would suggested when writing about reading the world (Freire and Macedo, 1987).
In terms of how this topic is interesting to me as the teacher, it stems from my dualistic identity as both a rural and urban person. I grew up on a farm in rural Maryland. However, for the last nine years I have lived as an adult in urban areas such as Washington, D.C., Chicago and most recently, Philadelphia. I grew up with an affinity and respect for the land, for nature and natural environments. When I began to live in urban areas it was grossly apparent to me that not enough was being done to sustain the environment and natural resources and in fact there were many problems that were contributing to their destruction. I also have missed the green, natural settings that I loved as a child and I so appreciate the preserved spaces (mostly parks) and efforts in the city to incorporate green and natural elements into the urban environment. I feel a certain invested interest in raising awareness of and appreciation for the trees, parks and forests in urban areas in hopes that this awareness and appreciation may lead others to actively promote and protect them.
I also believe that many students who grow up in urban areas may not recognize the fact that they do in fact have nature all around them even in the city and I'd like to help them to come to appreciate it and not take it for granted. So this unit topic is a blend of my own personal affinity with nature and my desire to raise awareness of the natural environment for my students.
I also believe that many students who grow up in urban areas may not recognize the fact that they do in fact have nature all around them even in the city and I'd like to help them to come to appreciate it and not take it for granted. So this unit topic is a blend of my own personal affinity with nature and my desire to raise awareness of the natural environment for my students.
Part III: How is this topic accessible to students (in terms of developmental appropriateness and resources available)?
The developmental appropriateness of the topic is an interesting concept for me to engage with because I have worked hard to make it accessible to many different grade levels (first through fifth) in order to create a topic of study that could contribute towards building school community. Much of how I decided to structure the focus and progression of each differentiated unit was to look to the state standards. I would see if there were particular objectives that served as a foundation for the greater ideas of environmentalism and used those concepts to contribute towards a greater understanding of our relationship with trees. Where the differentiation is most necessary and apparent is in the activities themselves. For example the younger grades focus on specific organisms and examining them as specific examples (i.e., identifying a tree or the parts), while older grades start to think about how those organisms fit into a larger system (i.e., a tree as part of a forest ecosystem). I am challenging the oldest students (fifth graders) to apply their understanding of the system to be able to think about how those systems are impacted/changed and what role human society plays in those changes (i.e., how does an activist ignite change in the environment).
The level of cognitive demand builds with each grade level. It was important to me that the way that each grade approached the topic was within what Vygotsky would call those particular students' “zone of proximal development” . This zone is defined as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000, p. 81). In my unit part of how I intend to situate students within this zone is by utilizing the instructional strategy of guided inquiry. While I believe all my students can participate in inquiry as both problem solvers and problem generators, most of them are in need of guidance to make their inquiries meaningful and successful. I have designed the focus for each grade level to be on subtopics that have their foundation in knowledge I am confident that they have previously gained (whether in a previous year or in a previous unit of study) but that challenge students with new concepts and applications that with teacher guidance and support from working in groups they will be successful in understanding.
The developmental appropriateness of the topic is an interesting concept for me to engage with because I have worked hard to make it accessible to many different grade levels (first through fifth) in order to create a topic of study that could contribute towards building school community. Much of how I decided to structure the focus and progression of each differentiated unit was to look to the state standards. I would see if there were particular objectives that served as a foundation for the greater ideas of environmentalism and used those concepts to contribute towards a greater understanding of our relationship with trees. Where the differentiation is most necessary and apparent is in the activities themselves. For example the younger grades focus on specific organisms and examining them as specific examples (i.e., identifying a tree or the parts), while older grades start to think about how those organisms fit into a larger system (i.e., a tree as part of a forest ecosystem). I am challenging the oldest students (fifth graders) to apply their understanding of the system to be able to think about how those systems are impacted/changed and what role human society plays in those changes (i.e., how does an activist ignite change in the environment).
The level of cognitive demand builds with each grade level. It was important to me that the way that each grade approached the topic was within what Vygotsky would call those particular students' “zone of proximal development” . This zone is defined as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000, p. 81). In my unit part of how I intend to situate students within this zone is by utilizing the instructional strategy of guided inquiry. While I believe all my students can participate in inquiry as both problem solvers and problem generators, most of them are in need of guidance to make their inquiries meaningful and successful. I have designed the focus for each grade level to be on subtopics that have their foundation in knowledge I am confident that they have previously gained (whether in a previous year or in a previous unit of study) but that challenge students with new concepts and applications that with teacher guidance and support from working in groups they will be successful in understanding.
I have many wonderful resources available to me that will help make this topic as accessible as possible for my students. I am fortunate to be in a science specific classroom. This affords me the opportunity to make use of science kit materials from companies like FOSS and STC that were provided by the district. It also means that we have a nice large room to be able to spread out in and work easily in collaborative groups. But perhaps the most relevant resources that are available are larger in scale. For example, the school that I am placed at has a very large and tree filled schoolyard/school grounds that are very accessible and will be made use of as an outdoor classroom and site for observations and specific activities. I am also fortunate that down the street from the school is Clark Park. This park is where I will be taking some students to study, observe, assess and evaluate specific tree samples and specific examples. Also, through their weekly homework assignment we will be utilizing the neighborhood of this school which actually does have a decent amount of tree cover and an active community group called Tree Tenders that can support their learning within and outside of this unit and the time we spend on this topic.
Part IV: How does this topic provide opportunities for multiple connections?
Students at this school have been fortunate enough to have a very solid background in science education and hands on science experiences in a science specific classroom setting. This includes having had multiple opportunities to observe living things growing and changing. In fact, many current students participated in recent years in major tree planting initiatives on the school grounds which are very large and do include many diverse trees and a vegetable garden at this point in time. They also are fortunate to have a large community park, Clark Park that has been revitalized in recent years and become a major part of the neighborhood's outdoor presence. These are important connections students can pull from that are very close to the topic at hand.
However, there are other connections students will make that are broader in scope. For example, the entire school just completed a major initiative to focus on informational texts and within this unit they will have plenty of chances to apply their understanding and appreciation of this kind of reading. Also the school participated in a special contest put on by the Philadelphia Zoo called the Unless Project that focused on the affects of climate change and connecting human energy consumption to the negative impact on certain species of animals. This is a great foundation for students to build onto in terms of connecting human actions and decisions to effects in nature and why we have a responsibility to respect, value and protect nature by making better choices. Last month was also Black History month. Many students were learning about social activism and people making change in their own society. This will hopefully lead to students making connections to Wangari Maathai's work with the women in Africa and other environmental activists that we will be learning about.
Overall much of what underlies what we are studying with the trees and environmentalism are cross-cutting concepts that students will be able to connect to other learning. These include concepts such as: patterns, cycles, classification, measurement, growth, cause and effect, motivation, strategies, persuasion, change over time, and others. These are concepts that can be connected to many other content areas and units of study in their schooling experiences.
Students at this school have been fortunate enough to have a very solid background in science education and hands on science experiences in a science specific classroom setting. This includes having had multiple opportunities to observe living things growing and changing. In fact, many current students participated in recent years in major tree planting initiatives on the school grounds which are very large and do include many diverse trees and a vegetable garden at this point in time. They also are fortunate to have a large community park, Clark Park that has been revitalized in recent years and become a major part of the neighborhood's outdoor presence. These are important connections students can pull from that are very close to the topic at hand.
However, there are other connections students will make that are broader in scope. For example, the entire school just completed a major initiative to focus on informational texts and within this unit they will have plenty of chances to apply their understanding and appreciation of this kind of reading. Also the school participated in a special contest put on by the Philadelphia Zoo called the Unless Project that focused on the affects of climate change and connecting human energy consumption to the negative impact on certain species of animals. This is a great foundation for students to build onto in terms of connecting human actions and decisions to effects in nature and why we have a responsibility to respect, value and protect nature by making better choices. Last month was also Black History month. Many students were learning about social activism and people making change in their own society. This will hopefully lead to students making connections to Wangari Maathai's work with the women in Africa and other environmental activists that we will be learning about.
Overall much of what underlies what we are studying with the trees and environmentalism are cross-cutting concepts that students will be able to connect to other learning. These include concepts such as: patterns, cycles, classification, measurement, growth, cause and effect, motivation, strategies, persuasion, change over time, and others. These are concepts that can be connected to many other content areas and units of study in their schooling experiences.